Brian Bruney blamed himself for straining the flexor muscle in his right elbow, an injury that forced him into a stint on the disabled list.

“I have thrown quite a bit,” Bruney said in reference to tossing on his own. “It’s my fault and I have to make corrections.”

[My take: Pitchers determine their own throwing schedule? Besides starters, don’t relievers have specific schedules for throwing (assuming they haven’t been used in a few days?) Also, how much throwing on his own would he have to do? Undoubtedly, he’s been warmed up in the pen on days he hasn’t actually appeared in a game.]

Joel Sherman[2] is thinking that Nady trade is turning towards the Pirates’ favor:

The Yankees were viewed as big winners, including in this space, after the late July trade last year that brought Nady and Marte from Pittsburgh. But that is a hard case to make today. Nady’s right elbow is damaged. He will try to rehab, avoid surgery and return in about a month. But that is iffy, at best.

They will not say this publicly, but Yankees officials already have shaky faith in Marte, whose reputation has long been great stuff, questionable fortitude.

In the offseason, the Yanks seriously considered dealing Nady, but GM Brian Cashman said no suitable return was ever offered. With Marte they had four alternatives: 1) Let him leave as a free agent without offering arbitration. 2) Let him leave and offer arbitration. Marte was a Type-A free agent, so if he signed elsewhere, the Yanks would have recouped two first-round picks. If he accepted arbitration, Marte would have belonged to the Yanks for one more year with a contract in the $3 million-$4 million range.

3) Pick up his option for one year at $6 million. 4) Re-sign him.

They re-signed him, which now looks like the worst choice. Early in the offseason, they gave Marte a three-year, $12 million deal and, soon after, the full impact of the spiraling economy hit the game, devastating the lefty relief market perhaps more than any other area. . . .

And the Yankees had to give up four pieces for Nady and Marte: pitchers Jeff Karstens, Russ Ohlendorf, Daniel McCutchen and outfield prospect Jose Tabata. The Marlins went into Pittsburgh at the beginning of last week with an 11-1 record, and Ohlendorf and Karstens pitched well and beat them on consecutive days.

The worst economy since the Great Depression doesn’t seem to exist at Fenway Park, where the Red Sox stunned the Yankees again Saturday, 16-11, before their 480th consecutive sellout, dating back to May 15, 2003. For 11 home games this season, they are averaging 37, 719 fans, which computes to about 101 percent capacity. Somehow they do this with an original structure almost a century old, with cramped hard seats, corridors as claustrophobic as subway tracks and no Great Hall for the masses to behold.

“There are those who want to build the Eighth Wonder of the World,” Larry Lucchino, the Red Sox’ president and chief executive, told me Friday. “We just wanted to preserve a nice little old ballpark.”

Lucchino didn’t have to identify “who” built what. But we’ll assume he was not referring to the Houston Astrodome but to a certain South Bronx monument to excess — best known in its young life for a home team clubhouse that is more of a penthouse, a jet stream to right field and empty cushioned seats that promise to be a continuous and televised reminder of a grand and greedy overreach.

In the Yankees’ universe, meanwhile, the unhappiness could be found in Tampa, where a significant portion of team employees work at Steinbrenner Field and the organization’s minor-league complex – and where George Steinbrenner and his four children live. Of these roughly 55 employees, only vice presidents received invitations to the new Stadium’s opener, April 16 against the Indians.

The tension reflected the general disconnect between the Yankees’ main headquarters in New York and outpost in Tampa, and the feeling among Tampa-based employees that they are second-class citizens. . . .

. . . Many of the people upset here also belong to the group that has cast a “Curse of the Rings” on the Yankees. Because the Yankees did not give World Series rings to many of their full-time employees after the 2000 title, these unhappy workers contend, on the condition of anonymity, that the Yankees won’t win another Fall Classic until this wrong is righted.

The Yanks Triple-A team finally lost their 2nd game[7] of the year . . . so now they’re only 14-2.

On this date in 1947, Babe Ruth Day at Yankee Stadium drew a crowd of more than 58,000 to honor the ailing star. In the game, Sid Hudson of the Washington Senators beat Spud Chandler and the Yankees 1 – 0.